57% of citizens surveyed say our MLAs are corrupt

Times of India: Mumbai: Friday, 10 October 2014.

Even as candidates contesting the assembly elections are going all out to prove how honest they are and will continue to be once elected to power, the common Mumbaikar's perception of how corrupt they are has only shot up by a steep 24% this year from the previous year.

This data is part of a Praja Foundation study. The NGO surveyed 25,000 households across various socio-economic strata in different places in the city.

Till 2013, only 33% of people considered their MLAs corrupt. Today, their numbers have grown to 57%. This increase has inversely led to a decrease in the citizens' perception of improvement in their quality of life, from 70% last year to 60% today.

"The manifestos that parties have released of late only seem to be competing with one another to offer benefits to the common man such as laptops or tablets. Nobody, though, seems to be speaking about how they plan to tackle corruption, which is a menace that affects the common man at every point. There are no concrete steps that candidates are laying out to tackle corruption," said Nitai Mehta, founding trustee, Praja Foundation.

The perception of improvement in the quality of life has decreased wherever the percentage of corruption perception has increased. Julio Riberio, former Mumbai police commissioner, says the reason for this that there is no fear left in the minds of the corrupt. "When I began my service in the early 1950's, corrupt officials might have existed back then too, but they had fear in their minds of being caught. Today, with low conviction rates, more officials believe they can go scot-free if they are caught doing anything."

Meanwhile, Milind Mhaske, project director at Praja Foundation, said today both political leaders and administrators are not engaging in delivering people-centric solutions. "It is important for political leaders to invest in projects that improve lives of citizens at large, be it improving public transport or health services. People are fed up with mounting corruption. They have become more aware of the corruption as they are being faced with at every level, be it political leaders, BMC or police officials," said Mhaske and added that it is essential for political parties to address these issues so the perception people have of their elected representative improves.

City activists blamed the high-handedness of elected representatives for the increase in the perception of corruption. Aftab Siddique, chairperson, 33rd Road Khar ALM, said illegal constructions for which MLAs give permissions are a classic example. "Politicians know well that the beneficiaries become their vote banks. They, therefore, do not allow these structures to be demolished despite irregularities."

Nilesh Baxi, an activist and a former member of BMC's tree authority, said he finds the 24% increase in perception, too, meager. "Corruption has increased by leaps and bounds. Even the declarations by candidates in their affidavits look so fake. The assets of some candidates have increased so drastically that it's surprising."Nitai Mehta said, "Comparing the recent increase in the perception of corruption among political leaders and public officials with declining quality of life perception is just the tip of the iceberg. If we scratch the surface, we can find that its impact on everyday life runs much deeper. The city's infrastructure is in a shambles."

The RTI data obtained by Praja shows the conviction rate for serious crime has further dropped from 10% to 7% in one year, from 2011 to 2012. Although MCGM spends several thousand crores of rupees on maintaining and building roads, the quality of roads is pathetic. There are around 40,000 pothole complaints every year, it said.